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Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem Team - The Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem Team (GLBET) Geographic Information System (GIS)/Decision Support System (DSS) provides refuge personnel and other interested parties the ability to answer questions related to islands within the Great Lakes basin using spatial and non-spatial data.
Purpose: The GLBET GIS/DSS is a tool, which helps the user answer simple questions concerning Great Lakes islands and the Great Lakes basin as a whole. The GIS/DSS facilitates decision-making for land acquisition, environmental review, management planning, and provides a valuable tool for communication and outreach. The GIS/DSS will be available from the desktop of all USFWS field stations that manage resources within the Great Lakes Basin. Managers will be able to review Great Lakes islands within the GIS/DSS for natural resource values and threats and for their potential for acquisition by the National Wildlife Refuge System. Background: The Great Lakes contain about 30,000 islands, ranging in size from small boulders to over a hundred thousand acres. These islands form the world's largest freshwater island system and are a unique natural resource. A large number of rare natural features are located on the islands of the Great Lakes, including several species of plants endemic solely to Great Lakes islands, and many U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) trust resources such as rare and endangered species, neotropical migrants, interjurisdictional fishes, colonial water birds, and waterfowl. The extensive island shoreline epitomizes the Great Lakes coastal ecology. The issue of Great Lakes island protection is timely in that pressures from invasive species and humans continue to increase. The Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem Team (GLBET) island committee collaborated with the USGS Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center (UMESC) and the USGS Great Lakes Science Center (GLSC) to gather spatial and non-spatial data relating to Great Lakes islands and their watershed. The Decision Support System (DSS) was created by the UMESC to guide future management and protection of islands and surrounding areas at many scales ranging from small, site-specific projects to basin-wide examinations. The GIS/DSS presently in use on the Upper Mississippi River was used as a model for the project. The tool was created using Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 and Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) MapObjects LT2. Current Status: The GLBET GIS/DSS is currently available as a demonstration project for the Lake Michigan watershed. Future Actions: The GLBET GIS/DSS will be expanded in the future to include the remaining Great Lake basins. Each individual lake basin will have its own application, which the user can install on his/her computer. For More Information, Contact: [Revised April 30, 2002] | |||
